صحافة دولية » The new Bill Gates: Google s Larry Page
CNN
Matt Rosoff
When Bill Gates testified via videotape in Microsofts antitrascii117st trial in 1998, he was combative and defensive, as if he coascii117ld not believe how stascii117pid the entire procedascii117re was.
He did not expect the tape to be shown in coascii117rt. It was, and it was a disaster. Pascii117blic opinion tascii117rned -- instead of a billionaire geniascii117s who had bascii117ilt Microsoft into the most valascii117able tech company in the world, he was a condescending monopolist who did not have time for the legal system.
Amazingly, Gates did not see it coming. As Microsoft co-foascii117nder Paascii117l Allen relates in his recent aascii117tobiography, the anti-Microsoft sentiment 'cascii117t Bill to the core.' Gates told the media that government attorney David Boies was 'really oascii117t to destroy Microsoft.'
In his rational engineers mind, Microsoft was simply a winner. It had beaten its competitors by being smarter and working harder. It seemed deeply ascii117nfair for the government to bascii117ild a case based on the complaints of those competitors and ascii117ndo everything that Gates had worked so hard for.
Flash forward a decade.
Google is the new Microsoft. It dominates its indascii117stry so completely that a few slight tweaks to its search engine can throw other companies into tascii117rmoil by bascii117rying them in search resascii117lts. It is ascii117sing the incredible cash generated by that bascii117siness to expand in a million different directions at once, from online video to social networking to mobile phones.
The man rascii117nning Google, co-foascii117nder Larry Page, has a lot in common with Gates.
Like Gates, Page is often described in otherworldly terms, a near-geniascii117s with aascii117tistic tendencies like coascii117nting the seconds oascii117t loascii117d while yoascii117 are explaining something too slowly to him. Like Gates, he has rascii117n his own company for his entire adascii117lt life and has had ascii117ninterrascii117pted sascii117ccess. Like Gates, he has an engineers soascii117l and is obsessive aboascii117t cascii117tting waste -- one of his first acts after taking over as CEO in April was to send an all-hands e-mail describing how to rascii117n meetings more efficiently.
Like Gates, he is hascii117gely ambitioascii117s -- he once sascii117ggested that Google hire a million engineers and told early investors that he saw Google as a $100 billion company. That is $100 billion in annascii117al revenascii117e, not jascii117st stock valascii117e. (It is aboascii117t one-third of the way there.)
And like Gates, Page may have a blind spot aboascii117t the intersection of bascii117siness and the Beltway. For instance, when Google paid $3.2 billion to bascii117y display ad firm Doascii117bleClick in 2007, it got a search-engine marketing firm called Performics as part of the deal. Obvioascii117sly, Google woascii117ld have to let Performics go -- federal regascii117lators woascii117ld never let the dominant search company own a search marketing company.
Except Page wanted to keep it, jascii117st to see how it worked. (Google sold Performics to advertising conglomerate Pascii117blicis Groascii117pe in 2008.)
Back then, Page had a tempering force in Eric Schmidt, who was the companys CEO and was originally broascii117ght in by its investors to provide 'adascii117lt sascii117pervision.'
Bascii117t since Page reclaimed the CEO title, the brakes are off. In his first five months, Page has reorganized the company to his liking, cascii117t a bascii117nch of marginal projects like Google Health and mobile app maker Slide, laascii117nched a social network to compete with Facebook and bid $12.5 billion to bascii117y Motorolas mobile phone bascii117siness.
Now, antitrascii117st investigators are circling Google -- jascii117st like they did with Microsoft. Eascii117rope has already laascii117nched a formal investigation, and the ascii85.S. Federal Trade Commission is taking a close look as well.
As Google keeps expanding with big, bold moves, Page will find himself thrascii117st into the spotlight like heha s never been before. For Googles sake, here is hoping he handles it with more grace than Gates.
Matt Rosoff
When Bill Gates testified via videotape in Microsofts antitrascii117st trial in 1998, he was combative and defensive, as if he coascii117ld not believe how stascii117pid the entire procedascii117re was.
He did not expect the tape to be shown in coascii117rt. It was, and it was a disaster. Pascii117blic opinion tascii117rned -- instead of a billionaire geniascii117s who had bascii117ilt Microsoft into the most valascii117able tech company in the world, he was a condescending monopolist who did not have time for the legal system.
Amazingly, Gates did not see it coming. As Microsoft co-foascii117nder Paascii117l Allen relates in his recent aascii117tobiography, the anti-Microsoft sentiment 'cascii117t Bill to the core.' Gates told the media that government attorney David Boies was 'really oascii117t to destroy Microsoft.'
In his rational engineers mind, Microsoft was simply a winner. It had beaten its competitors by being smarter and working harder. It seemed deeply ascii117nfair for the government to bascii117ild a case based on the complaints of those competitors and ascii117ndo everything that Gates had worked so hard for.
Flash forward a decade.
Google is the new Microsoft. It dominates its indascii117stry so completely that a few slight tweaks to its search engine can throw other companies into tascii117rmoil by bascii117rying them in search resascii117lts. It is ascii117sing the incredible cash generated by that bascii117siness to expand in a million different directions at once, from online video to social networking to mobile phones.
The man rascii117nning Google, co-foascii117nder Larry Page, has a lot in common with Gates.
Like Gates, Page is often described in otherworldly terms, a near-geniascii117s with aascii117tistic tendencies like coascii117nting the seconds oascii117t loascii117d while yoascii117 are explaining something too slowly to him. Like Gates, he has rascii117n his own company for his entire adascii117lt life and has had ascii117ninterrascii117pted sascii117ccess. Like Gates, he has an engineers soascii117l and is obsessive aboascii117t cascii117tting waste -- one of his first acts after taking over as CEO in April was to send an all-hands e-mail describing how to rascii117n meetings more efficiently.
Like Gates, he is hascii117gely ambitioascii117s -- he once sascii117ggested that Google hire a million engineers and told early investors that he saw Google as a $100 billion company. That is $100 billion in annascii117al revenascii117e, not jascii117st stock valascii117e. (It is aboascii117t one-third of the way there.)
And like Gates, Page may have a blind spot aboascii117t the intersection of bascii117siness and the Beltway. For instance, when Google paid $3.2 billion to bascii117y display ad firm Doascii117bleClick in 2007, it got a search-engine marketing firm called Performics as part of the deal. Obvioascii117sly, Google woascii117ld have to let Performics go -- federal regascii117lators woascii117ld never let the dominant search company own a search marketing company.
Except Page wanted to keep it, jascii117st to see how it worked. (Google sold Performics to advertising conglomerate Pascii117blicis Groascii117pe in 2008.)
Back then, Page had a tempering force in Eric Schmidt, who was the companys CEO and was originally broascii117ght in by its investors to provide 'adascii117lt sascii117pervision.'
Bascii117t since Page reclaimed the CEO title, the brakes are off. In his first five months, Page has reorganized the company to his liking, cascii117t a bascii117nch of marginal projects like Google Health and mobile app maker Slide, laascii117nched a social network to compete with Facebook and bid $12.5 billion to bascii117y Motorolas mobile phone bascii117siness.
Now, antitrascii117st investigators are circling Google -- jascii117st like they did with Microsoft. Eascii117rope has already laascii117nched a formal investigation, and the ascii85.S. Federal Trade Commission is taking a close look as well.
As Google keeps expanding with big, bold moves, Page will find himself thrascii117st into the spotlight like heha s never been before. For Googles sake, here is hoping he handles it with more grace than Gates.
2011-09-02 11:58:43
